Winter BreeAnne on the Gun-Violence-Prevention Partnership That Delivered Over 750,000 Postcards to Congress

TOMS Shoes made history last year with the largest-ever corporate donation to the fight against gun violence. Founder Blake Mycoskie pledged $5 million in donations to organizations working to stem the tide of tragedy. Mycoskie’s shoe brand, known for its giving nature, decided to do more than give money: He wanted to give communities fighting the epidemic of gun violence a chance to come together.

That’s how Winter BreeAnne, a member of Teen Vogue’s 2018 21 Under 21 class, got involved. The 17-year-old activist was already doing grassroots work including being the youth lead for the Women's March Youth Empower national team and as an organizer of the National School Walkout. She was able to bring the shoe brand into the fold with existing gun-violence-prevention organizations that could use the support.

Winter ended up on a cross-country tour with Mycoskie, stopping in cities all across the nation to foster meetings and elevate the conversation on gun violence. The trip culminated in Washington, D.C., where a rally was followed by a day of delivering hundreds of thousands of postcards calling for background-check legislation to members of Congress.

Teen Vogue spoke with Winter about what it was like taking their message to the halls of power, and all the little moments that showed her the importance of her work along the way.

Teen Vogue: What made you want to get involved with the postcard campaign?

Winter Minisee: Do you want to know about the whole road trip?

TV: Yeah! Give us some context, please.

WB: When [TOMS founder] Blake [Mycoskie] announced that he was going to donate $5 million to end gun violence — which was actually the largest corporate donation to this cause in history — I was on board.

I did a first test run with them in New York City to announce it. I came from the perspective of a young person who had already been organizing grassroots efforts on the ground for this cause. I helped to partner them with the organizations that I knew, so that every place the money was going to was an organization with a very holistic approach to ending gun violence.

They also launched a postcard campaign, and the postcard campaign was something that was very accessible to all people. So how it works is you can go on TOMS.com and fill out a postcard that will go to an official and the postcard is asking for a universal background check.

TV: And that was based on the House background check bill that's being considered? HR8?

WB: At the time, it was just pushing universal background checks because the bill wasn't actually brought to the floor yet. So it was a super huge win when HR8 actually was brought to the floor this past January, especially with the new Congress.

We got over 100,000 postcards in the first 24 hours. There was a lot of momentum. Jimmy Fallon did the very first one, and we were in New York City when we launched it. From there, it kind of just became this big snowball.

Right before Christmas and the holidays, we had the idea to go on a road trip to hand-deliver all the postcards. So within less than four weeks, everyone put together the whole entire tour and we traveled from L.A. to Washington, D.C., to hand-deliver over 750,000 postcards to Congress. It was super cool to see that happen.

On the tour itself, it was amazing. I was the only other person on the tour the whole entire time other than Mycoskie. We stopped in Los Angeles; Las Vegas; Denver, Colorado; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Pittsburgh; and then Washington, D.C. And at each stop, [we had] different conversations or community events with local communities and those who are working on the ground.

TV: It sounds like there's a lot of organizations out there all across the country that are still very active in this space.

WB: D.C. was amazing. It was the big climax of the whole entire road trip. Monday night, we hosted an event. It was pretty much a bunch of people from the community, a lot of people we met on the road, and partnered organizations that all came together in a big rally for the event. We had Vic Mensa headline it, along with a performer named MILCK. Lots of congressmen and women were in attendance. The [Martin Luther] King family was there. I spoke and also Matt Deitsch from March for Our Lives.

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It was so amazing to see so many different people who we met on the road who were from different backgrounds come into this one place because we all believe that gun violence should be eradicated. And then the next day we organized a bus trip for all our peers to actually deliver the postcards to Congress.

TV: How did it feel to be really taking it to the halls of power like that?

WB: It was amazing. I think because of my work with them the past two years of organizing young people and also as a young person who wasn't even of age to vote in November, being able to basically carry the postcards of young people who are traditionally unheard in a political space was so empowering. Because oftentimes, young people are left out of the conversation when it comes to politics because we aren't of age to vote and a lot of politicians care most about their voting constituents, which makes sense because they want to be reelected. But it was so amazing to carry so many other voices with me to Congress.

TV: Anybody give you any trouble?

WB: No, surprisingly. Of course, there are people who gave us the brush-off. But one thing I want to stress about this is it's so different from my work even with the Women's March is that TOMS has a very unique platform. Half of their consumer population is conservative and then the other half is more progressive or liberal.

No one wants to lose someone to gun violence. No one wants to have a family member lost to gun violence. This is something that pretty much everyone can agree on — just ending gun violence as a whole. The policies that TOMS picked to push with the postcards called for the background checks, which over 90% of Americans agree on.

The whole campaign was really about fighting gun violence together. I saw that first-hand on this trip. Pittsburgh is home to Tree of Life and also a lot of urban gun violence, as well. We marched together: a group of black kids and a group of white, Jewish kids who had never known each other, never seen each other, never had a conversation together, but lived within a block of each other.

It was literally bringing communities together in conversation in ways that had not been done before. I think that's like the dopest thing, that I think I'm most proud of about the campaign.

WB: On the road. Working still. Continuing, of course, my activism. I still have a really strong relationship with TOMS. TOMS right now is still thinking what's next after the gun-violence campaign.

I am a senior partner at a consulting firm, as well, called Jüv Consulting, which is a Gen Z-run and -led consultancy firm based out of New York City. So, working with that and making sure the youth voice is being heard in corporate spaces and anyone who is trying to market to our generation.

I am also on the board of the CJRC, which is the Community Justice Reform Coalition; I'm the youngest member. And so I've been continuing to work in the field of gun violence through them, as well, and then I'm a contributor at Crooked Media. Lots of conversations.

TV: What do you do to take care of yourself if you've had a hard day or you're feeling wiped?

WB: Self-care is so important because the burnout can be very real. For me, I like to listen to music. I just value my alone time, whether it's listening to music, getting a massage, or hanging out with my family. I am going away to college, so I've been trying to spend as much time with my family as possible.